In this study, we evaluated the effect of reactor type with increased surface area on the fractional precipitation process for the efficient purification of paclitaxel. The three types of reactors (spiral, round, and twisted types) all exhibited higher yields than in cases where the surface area had not been increased at the same precipitation time. It was possible to obtain a high paclitaxel yield of 70% or above after 4 h of precipitation. In particular, in the case of the spiral-type reactor, high yields of 64% and 72%, respectively, were obtained 2 h and 4 h after precipitation, thus exhibiting the highest precipitation efficiency. In addition, it was also possible to dramatically reduce the time necessary for fractional precipitation. On the other hand, the reactor type hardly affected the purity. The size of the paclitaxel precipitate increased with precipitation time. With the spiral-, round-, and twisted-type reactors, it was possible to obtain paclitaxel precipitates with smaller sizes than cases where the surface area had not been increased. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.